


Disappeared

by Fabrisse



Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015), Spooks | MI-5
Genre: Knife Violence, M/M, Major Character Injury, Surgery, Torture Mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-07
Updated: 2015-05-07
Packaged: 2018-03-29 09:42:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3891607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fabrisse/pseuds/Fabrisse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt at Dressing Room 3:</p><p>Either Harry or Merlin is left with a Glasgow Smile after a stint of captivity/torture, and the other helps them recover</p><p>It's Merlin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Disappeared

**Author's Note:**

> This is slash, but it's only the barest beginnings of a relationship. The violence is in line with the rating.
> 
> **This is not in my Rebuilding the Table 'verse.**

"Where's Merlin?" Galahad asked after the weekly meeting. "Doesn't he usually bring us doom and gloom and a new assignment about now?"

Arthur smiled indulgently. "I thought it politic to acquiesce when MI-5 requested him for a joint training operation with the SAS. His expertise in coordinating multifaceted operations can only reflect well on us."

Galahad spooned his soup. "What you mean is that you're showing off. We have a doctor of mathematics who's a former commando and can run rings around the rest of you without even trying."

"Something like that, dear boy." He chuckled indulgently. "I wouldn't have authorized it if we weren't having a slow period at the moment."

The soup was taken away and a trout with peas and buttermilk was placed before them. 

"A wager, Arthur. Merlin insists on running the live fire course and comes within the top five times."

"Shall we say £100?"

"Done."

***  
Two weeks later, Galahad found out he'd won the bet. He didn't particularly care as it was also the day, he'd found out that Merlin had gone missing.

***  
The contacts at MI-5 weren't helpful at all. Somehow Galahad was less than surprised. The young men whom Merlin had worked with on the SAS were all eager to help and from talking to them, Harry got a pretty good idea of the operation to grab him. It was definitely directed at Merlin and probably at Kingsman in general.

He put the word out privately to the other Kingsmen he trusted. Four days later, Sagramore came back with a terror cell linked to Falcon on the wrong side of the Turkish border. Lancelot flew directly from his home in Santiago to Ankara. The three of them planned the extraction while he was in the air, and when they met him at the airport, everything was in place. It took less than two hours to get where they were going. Sagramore was staying with the plane and refueling while Lancelot and Galahad made the attempt. 

It was nearly textbook. When they got to the basement, there were other prisoners being held. Galahad was able to get someone to say they'd seen Merlin taken to interrogation and to point out where the room was. 

There was only one man with Merlin, and he held a knife at his throat. Everything happened quickly then. Merlin ducked his head to move the knife and give his friends a better shot at the man behind him, Lancelot moved and Galahad took the shot. The knife slipped, nicking the left side of Merlin's mouth and opening up a bigger wound on the right.

Galahad threw Lancelot the keys and said, "Let the other prisoners out. They'll help cover our escape." He tried to staunch the blood, but he could see the panic in his friend's eyes as he began to choke. There was something very garbled, and it took Harry a moment to realize that Merlin couldn't put his lips together to articulate. 

Lancelot came back and one of the prisoners followed. 

The man said, in cultured Egyptian Arabic, that he was a doctor. He apologized for not being able to sterilize his hands and Galahad pulled out some hand sanitizer. He'd laughed when Merlin had added it to their emergency packs, and now it was potentially helpful against infection.

Lancelot said, "I've contacted Sagramore. We don't have too much time, Galahad."

The physician said something and Galahad nodded. "There's a stretcher down the hall he says, second door to the right back the way we came." 

He went for the stretcher and the physician performed an emergency tracheotomy using the sanitizer freely. He also explained to Galahad how the flaps of skin needed to be held together until they could get Merlin to a hospital. Once air was getting into Merlin's lungs, he yelled "Tawfeeq!" and a young man came into the room. 

Lancelot laid the stretcher down, and the physician and Galahad got Merlin onto it with as little pain as they could. The physician and the young man took the two ends, and Lancelot took point. They went as quickly as they could back to the plane and secured Merlin behind the seats. The physician gave them some instructions to keep him well in transit. When Galahad offered to take them along or at least let them be paid, the physician said a quick blessing and turned him down. 

"At least tell me your name, so we remember who to thank," Galahad said.

The physician smiled. "I am called Israfil," he said.

***  
As soon as they got back to Ankara, they got Merlin to a hospital. Once he was stabilized, Sagramore called in some favors the Americans owed him, and got him medical transportation first to Rheinmain and then to Mildenhall. Arthur had a private ambulance waiting to get him to Gray's Inn Road.

Three days later, Harry was sitting by Merlin's bedside as he woke up from surgery. "Don't try to talk. The doctors repaired the stoma while they were in there. You'll be ventilated for at least two more days. Do you understand?"

Merlin closed his eyes deliberately once. 

Harry said, "I'm not going to bore you with trivialities. You've had several surgeries, mostly to minimize nerve damage and repair your salivary glands."

One eyebrow rose and Harry chuckled. "I know. It probably seems like they weren't successful while you're on that ventilator, but they assure me it went very well. This last surgery was cosmetic. It won't be invisible, but they've minimized the scar as much as possible. There shouldn't be much tension -- it won't pull your lips back -- and you should be able to start speech therapy in about a week."

Another blink. He glanced at their linked hands and then back up at Harry. 

"Comfort, though I'm not certain whether it's more for you or me."

Merlin's fingers tightened.

***  
Most of the other damage done by his weeks in captivity was healed, or nearly so, by the time he was allowed to leave the hospital. There'd been some deep bruising and superficial cuts from what looked to be a whipping, but those healed much faster than his face. 

Harry stayed in his rooms at headquarters in order to help Merlin heal. They walked the grounds until Merlin was able to run again, ran the obstacle course once he was able, and swam. His startle reflex was still hair trigger, so it took a little longer before he was ready for the shooting ranges. And through it all, Harry drilled him on his speech work. He wouldn't let Merlin write everything, wouldn't try to fill in the words when he was struggling.

Merlin said, "I hate ye." His lips couldn't move forward properly to say "you" yet.

Harry said, "I know. I'd rather have you hating me in my ear on a mission than loving me and someone else at my back. I'm purely being selfish. You're the best at what you do, and I want you to work with me again."

Merlin squeezed his hand and gave a deliberate blink.

***  
He went back to work on the analytical side first and tech followed shortly. His subordinates knew to leave enough space for him to say what he needed to, and slowly -- so very slowly -- he began working ops again. For the first two months, he ran missions with someone else on the comms. But one night, the person covering comms was sick and Merlin just picked up the earpiece and leaned into the microphone. He still had a slight lateral lisp from where the scar pulled up his left side a bit, but otherwise, his speech was fine. 

The mission was simple: Lancelot needing to get answers on a particular problem in Buenos Aires, but at the end of it, when he was safely back in the hotel room, Lancelot said, "Six months of speech therapy and you still talk like a bloody Glaswegian."

"Aye, I do that," Merlin answered laying his brogue a little thicker.

"It's good to have you back in my head, Merlin," he said before signing out for the night.

***  
Harry took Merlin to lunch at Wilton's to celebrate. Merlin was shocked to see someone from MI-5 sharing the table.

"Mister Pearce," he said as he sat down.

"Call me Harry."

Merlin said, "That would be one too many Harrys at the table, sir." He glanced at the Harry who'd invited him.

"I was just telling Mister Pearce that in my spare time -- well, Sagramore and a few of the others worked on it, too -- I've been tracing the little group who kidnapped you from one of the most secure sites in Britain."

Merlin ordered his lunch before he said, "I've been wondering that myself."

Pearce looked back and forth between them. "Doctor M…" he caught the raised eyebrow and restarted, "Merlin, the request to have you perform the training exercise came from my office, and yet, I think you'll remember I was surprised to see you there."

Merlin's lips twitched, a more obvious tell with the scar. "I do. But I also remember who you work for. I'm sure if you'd taken to the stage you'd have a whole room full of Oliviers."

"Fair point," Pearce said. "And my assurances that what your colleagues found was news to me are…"

Harry said, "Either you lying or you're admitting your utter incompetence. More wine?"

"Thank you, Harry."

Merlin nodded. "Finally off the pain killers."

Pearce's face fell a bit at that. "I don't… One of our informers was … we thought we'd turned him. We hadn't. His primary duty while in Britain was to find out who had killed Falcon and how they found him. Someone provided him with your name and he suggested to someone on my staff that you'd be an ideal trainer for this joint exercise. I didn't even blink, because you were so ideal for the assignment."

"Just my bad luck then."

"No. No. It was… they're no longer with us."

Harry shook his head. "And by that do you mean they were summarily fired? Or that they were summarily shot?"

Pearce took in the distance to the nearest table and shrugged. "There are certain prisons which might know their names."

Harry looked at Merlin who said, "I understand. Thank you for telling me." 

"Yes, well, it's a general embarrassment."

They discussed general topics for the rest of the meal. Pearce insisted on picking up the tab, and for once, Harry let him.

As they exited the restaurant, Harry said, "Come back to my place for a drink? I already told Arthur we'd be taking the rest of the day."

"Yes, Harry."

They took a taxi back to Harry's home and Merlin approved the single malt he had on hand. They sat in silence for awhile. 

Finally Merlin leaned over and took the glass from Harry's hand. He turned Harry's face toward his and kissed him sweetly. Merlin sat back at his end of the sofa. "When I woke up, you were holding my hand. For the past six months, you've been either pushing me forward or beside me."

"Not if it's gratitude. I don't think I did more than any friend would do."

Merlin smiled without a twinge. "When have you known a Scot to be grateful to an Englishman for anything? And you did more than some spouses are able to cope with to help my recovery. That's more than friendship."

Harry took his hand and kissed it. "I've never been so angry with Arthur in my life as when he refused to look for you. He let himself be convinced not to put together a slate to find your replacement for a month, and the rest of us… I saw that knife at your throat and knew. Silly, but it's true."

Merlin looked at Harry fondly. "So, are we just going to hold hands on the sofa all night?"

Harry stood and tugged the hand he still held. "I think I may need to go to bed early tonight."

There was a chuckle. "Five in the afternoon is definitely enough time for a good night's sleep."


End file.
